Eight films is a somewhat improvement of last Junes sport interrupted three. Amongst them there are two films that would have been movie of the month contenders in other months along with the eventual winner that as we hit the half way point of the year is certainly on my shortlist for the year end top ten. The contenders are:

Wonder Woman: Origin story of Wonder Woman from Diana an Amazon princess through her first adventure. Perfect castling, a good story and sublime direction make for a classy comic book movie. I would go as far as to say, the best DC movie since The Dark Knight nearly a decade ago.

Gifted: Family drama about a single man raising a child maths prodigy. Not totally original but not falling into all the clichés you would expect. Its greatest strength is its performances couples with well told story. Proof if you needed it that Chris Evans has a career beyond Cap.

The Mummy:Universal launches its “Dark Universe” reimagining its classic monsters. Unfortunately, it isn’t very good. There are some good moments, Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella are good, Russell Crowe is terrible. All in all, it is a missed opportunity.

My Cousin Rachel:A young man is unsure whether to plot revenge against, or fall in love with his late cousin’s widow who may or may not have killed him. Rachel Weisz is sensational in this Daphne Du Maurier adaptation. Not perfect but extremely good.

Baby Driver:the story of a getaway driver since before he was old enough to drive sounds like a genre B picture, in a way Baby Driver is, but in the best way. Is it Edgar Wright’s best film? That is too subjective to answer, but it is certainly his most accomplished and my favourite.

Churchill:Brian Cox is perfect as Winston Churchill, Miranda Richardson is even better as Clementine Churchill. The film is both interesting and largely enjoyable but considering the subject matter sadly a little lightweight and insignificant.

The Book of Henry: With a Rotten Tomatoes rating in the low 20’s and reviews including: “Grotesquely phony and manipulative” and “a sub-Spielbergian pastiche, “The Book of Henry” is mostly a tedious”. This is unkind, the movie is flawed and predicable (other than the mid movie left turn/genre change) but is well made and well acted. it isn’t great but it doesn’t disserve the vitriol.

Transformers: The Last Knight: A total mess of a film with an ill-conceived and poorly realised plot. It looks good and the actors appear to be having fun. There is little to recommend it beyond saying it is less offensive than the last couple of instalments of the franchise.

Had it found its way to the screen in any other month, there is a good chance Wonder Woman would have achieved the accolade of movie of the month, but there is one film that is head and shoulders above the rest, the movie of the month is:

Back in the mid 90’s I was a student of film, obsessed with every new idea whilst simultaneously being immersed in the movies of the past. Just to confuse matters I also had one eye looking to the east; I was discovering films from both Europe and Asia in depth for the first time. It was at this time that I first saw Quentin Tarantino’s first two movies Reservoir Dogs (a couple of years after its original release) and Pulp Fiction (on opening night). As with many other people at the time I couldn’t decide if I should marvel at the originality or recoil at the plagiarism of Tarantino. I soon came to realise what Tarantino was doing wasn’t plagiarism, it wasn’t even homage, it went so much deeper than that! Quentin Tarantino was, and hopefully still is a sponge sucking up all that he comes into contact with; but when you squeeze that sponge, you don’t get what went in, you don’t even get a mixture of what went in, you get the best bits of what went in coloured by Tarantino’s own vision. Why am I saying this? Because this week I have seen Baby Driver, written and directed by Edgar Wright, the British director I can’t help comparing to Tarantino.

Yet to be released in the UK or USA, Baby Driver currently has a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 100% based with an average rating of 8.5/10; to put it another way, its bloody good! Is it Edgar Wright’s best film? That is too subjective to answer, it is certainly his most accomplished, and I think it is my favourite. For the uninitiated, here is the obligatory synopsis:

Baby (Ansel Elgort) has been a getaway driver since before he was old enough to drive. Following a childhood accident we learn about as the narrative unfolds, Baby suffers from tinnitus. To drown out the hum of his condition he listens to music on his IPod (other fruit and none fruit based devices are available). Anything beyond this would be a spoiler, the trailer already gives too much away.

What is so good about what on the surface is a genre movie with a thin plot? The answer to that is both obvious and strangely intangible. The largely recognisable cast (Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Eiza González, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jon Bernthal and Jamie Foxx) are all fantastic, particularly a surprisingly understated Kevin Spacey. His performance is as measured and deadpan as when he appeared in the David Mamet penned Glengarry Glen Ross a quarter of a century ago. Elgort is a revelation displaying both more subtlety and likeability than in his more teen friendly movies. Hamm and Foxx are clearly having the most fun with the most character roles. But the brilliance goes so far beyond just the performances. The characters anchor the movie but the sublime script keeps the movie ticking along perfectly keeping the audience in the palm of its metaphorical hand. I wouldn’t go as far as calling the trailer bait and switch, but it is as wonderfully misleading as you would expect in a few subtle ways.

The aforementioned references to other movies are exactly subtle, but they aren’t heavy-handed either. I can see Smokey and the Bandit (1977), The Driver (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), Point Break (1991) and Heat (1995). There is probably also a bit of Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Drive (2011),not to mention Monsters, Inc. (2001) that is both seen and referenced. I haven’t even mentioned the music yet. Edgar Wright has described writing a scene for every song used, a feat he really has accomplished. It’s so easy slip a few classic tracks into a movie, Baby Driver does so much more than that. The music choices aren’t always obvious, but they are always perfect, and perfectly fit the movie. There are little moments of brilliance including scenes cut to the rhythm of the song, or rewinding a song to time with the robbery. There are also moments we hear from Baby’s point of view with the drone of tinnitus.

This is Baby’s story so we only get as glimpse or a mention of the other characters when they are not interacting with Baby. This works well for the film as a whole but does leave Lily James’ Debora a little thinly drawn. This is a filmmaking choice rather than a mistake. It actually works to the benefit of the other characters, namely; Doc (Kevin Spacey), Buddy and Darling (Jon Hamm and Eiza González) who we don’t always know what to expect from them. The Atlanta setting is also key, set in LA, Chicago or Boston it would be a different film (It couldn’t be set in New York traffic) it also gives us marvellous southern accents and evokes the outlaw spirit of films from the 70’s and 80’s.

Fun, funny and charming, Baby Drive manages to be both original and familiar a totally joyous experience and the perfect antidote to the soulless blockbusters and heavy counterprogramming of the summer.